Hunternet: Space Combat Unbound

A downloadable game for Windows

Enjoy deep and challenging space combat, from nail-biting duels to epic space battles. Equip up to eighteen abilities from Hunternet's legendary arsenal and pilot the most powerful single-seat fighter ever developed. Play in cockpit, third-person or top-down perspective. Dedicated servers for you to play with bots or with friends at any time. Join our community for weekly events with the developer.

Yes, the game will ask you to update and won't let you connect to servers if you have an old client.

You can re-download whenever a new version comes out, but the better way is to install the itch.io app (it's like the steam app) and install Hunternet via the app. That way when I release a new version (usually once a week) the app will download a small patch automatically and you don't have to download Hunternet all over again.

A new version of Hunternet will be out for this weekend's play test. Among other things it introduces heat sinks (you can equip them to lower energy costs which makes your existing equipment more efficient and makes it harder to overheat). It will also include the first version of the shooting range.

Let me know if you have any more problems. I'm usually hanging out on the game's discord server and that is usually the fastest way to get my attention. Have fun, and hope to see you in the Hunternet :D

Congrats on this game! I dig "Cockpit Games" (see more on my youtube comment for your project). Now, about this Itch.io place, I have a serious question - why this game does not show up, if I search for "Space"? Makes me wonder, what more projects may have been off radar.

Thanks ThunderOwl :) Good question, I will go look into that now, maybe I need to add a tag for it. Hunternet has been quietly in development for years and in semi-stealth mode on itch.io for about a year. I'm just starting to get the word out because I'm ready to playtest large-scale combat and accessibility is finally decent enough that I think most players can finally ease into it (although I'm still working on improving the new player experience). If you have TrackIR you can use head tracking btw. Join us on discord if to meet other pilots, play pickup games, or join our weekly playtest.

Thank you also for taking the time to give me your feedback. I really appreciate any feedback that I get especially from a fellow dev.

I think cool downs could also work but I've purposely avoided them. But you are not alone, overheating is something that most new players struggle with, but with time you learn to avoid it most of the time. As you gain more experience with the game not only will you not overheat as often, but you will learn many techniques that are available for avoiding it. You can even turn it into an advantage using teleport. One tip, is that smash (aka the boost) is also a good way of gaining energy quickly when you are overheating. If you hit another player with smash any damage you do will come back to you as energy. A single hit from smash does 50e damage so two hits are enough to regain a full bar of energy. You also start out with enough credit to add one more ability to your kit, I recommend absorb which is a special shield that converts incoming damage into energy. I am still monitoring how new players respond to overheating, it is an area I want to improve upon in terms of new player experience but for now a separate cool down is probably too large of a change. But I do appreciate the suggestion :D

I always love talking game design, so if you are interested I'd love for you to be a part of our discord community, I hang out there everyday on discord and we get together every weekend for our schedule playtest. We also often play pickup games throughout the week: https://discord.gg/hunternet

Heads up I made some changes in the latest build with your feedback on overheating in mind :). It is now easier to avoid overheating, and more importantly avoid getting further in depth once you overheat, compared to previous builds. The game will gradually make it more challenging until you hit bronze tier at which point it will be at the regular difficulty that you experienced in the previous build. But by this time I hope most players will have learned how to avoid overheating and the various ways to deal with it when it does happen.

It's not a VR game, but I may add optional VR support in the future. It does have TrackIR (head tracking) support. And I plan on adding automatic head tracking for those that do not have TrackIR. If you want to chat with me about the game, I recommend you join our official discord. I'm always interested in feedback and ideas from new players: https://discord.gg/hunternet

I will admit that me being terrible at the game was because I didn't really look at the tutrorial. But even though I didn't accomplish much, I still found enjoyment in this game. The graphics are good, the gameplay is intuitive and the controls feel natural. I can definetly see people spending allot of time trying to master this game. So I would definetly reccommend this to a friend.

Thank you Mutant Gamer, I really enjoyed your video :). It is very normal for new players to struggle while they are still learning the fundamentals of space combat in Hunternet. I went ahead and made a tips video to help you and any other players who would like to get better at the game. Thanks for the recommendation! If you would like to fly with us sometime please join me on our discord: https://discord.gg/hunternet

pseudocarnicus, sorry to hear about it not working. I haven't had that problem before, so I'm not quite sure what is going on. So you are stuck in the main loading screen where you see the fox head logo and "Hunternet by Fernando Zapata"? If you go to Hunternet_Data folder there is a log file there called output_log.txt if you can email that to me at mycpudreams@gmail.com I will take look. You can also join our discord and that will make it easier for me to help you: https://discord.gg/hunternet

I downloaded this game after browsing Itch.io front page, ended up playing with the developer, and had a blast.

Ok, now onto the long version:

I am new to Itch.io and the indie game scene. I have only recently learned about Itch.io from browsing Reddit forums about where to get free or discounted games. As I was making my rounds through the front page of Itch.io, I saw Hunternet. Compared to the other games that were displayed, this game stood out in that it looked incredible from a gameplay perspective. And it was free! So i downloaded and launched the client, joined the SF server because it was the closest to my location, and began playing.

Let me tell you, I had no idea what I was getting into, or how much fun I would have playing. The game starts you off in a tutorial level where you learn the BARE minimal to play the game (this game is incredibly deep, more on that later). As a tutorial level, I didn't think I would have any company. Little did I know, the developer silently joined me and guided me through the tutorial. TBH, I though he was a bot for the longest time.

While we were fighting bots in the main arena, I heard a voice different from the announcer telling me tips and tricks on how to play the game. Both big tips like how to switch weapons and evade enemies, and little tips like how to gain new weapons. Remembering his username is on the games title screen as the developer, I realized I was in for something really special. While he was giving me tips and tricks to defeat enemies, he was honestly very positive and encouraging the entire time. Once I figured out how to talk in game (hold the 1 key BTW) we started to talk and I might have been fan-girling pretty hard during our conversations.

For the next hour or so we were playing and talking about the game. We talked about the games influences and what he was hoping to achieve with the game. Furthermore he was very polite and guided me through the controls better than I ever would've or could've. That's because the game is so DEEP. There is a level of control and fidelity that I have never been experienced to in any game. That doesn't mean there was a steep learning curve, it was quite easy to learn new moves in my opinion, but it made you think of techniques to avoid and engage enemies. Furthermore, with the item and weapon system that he has implemented into the game, I have no words to describe the sheer number ways a player can play Hunternet. It is awesome.

This game and the experience that I had playing it has been truly remarkable. I sincerely hope that anyone who visits this page who wants something that is both easy to understand and deep to play this game. It is a blast to play.

Hey Nsyno, thank you so much for taking the time to share your experience with everyone here on itch.io. It's an amazing to see all these new players enjoy my work. I've been monitoring the servers using the "Voice Alerts" feature in the server browser and I'm really glad I managed to drop in while you were playing. My main goal with Hunternet is to build a strong and healthy community we can keep playing for many years to come. I'm taking my time so that Hunternet has a good shot. We already have an awesome but small community that helped me get the game to where it is now and if things keep going as well as it has we will be able to place large-scale combat soon :). Welcome to the community, I look forward to flying with you again!

I've played this game now for about 33h and thought about giving a small review:

This game is in my oppinion one of the most mechanical intriguing space shooters I have seen. The gameplay is intuitive and gets more and more challenging as soon as you understand all the possibilities the game provides. It is designed for a huge playerbase, but I had already a lot of fun with just 3-5 players. I definitely recommend everyone to check it out.